Shmendrik

{{Short description|Yiddish word for a clueless person}}

{{wiktionary|schmendrick}}

Shmendrik ({{langx|yi|שמענדריק}}), also rendered as schmendrick or shmendrick is a Yiddish word meaning a stupid person or a little hapless jerk ("a pathetic sad sack"[https://forward.com/culture/127941/etiquette-for-schmucks-schlemiels-schlimazels-and/ Etiquette for Schmucks, Schlemiels, Schlimazels and Schmendriks], Forward, May 12, 2010). Its origin is the name of a clueless mama's boy played by Sigmund Mogulesko in an 1877 comedy Shmendrik, oder di komishe Chaseneh (Schmendrik or The Comical Wedding) by Abraham Goldfaden.[https://jel.jewish-languages.org/words/525 shmendrik], Jewish English Lexicon[https://www.oed.com/dictionary/schmendrick_n schmendrick], Oxford English Dictionary The play was inspired by a sketch presented by Mogulesco at an audition before Goldfaden.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Since then the word was often used as a name in the works of Jewish humour.

Regarding the perception of the word, The Joys of Yiddish lexicon stresses the meagerness of shmendrick compared to other Jewish schm-words for luckless persons: "A shmendrik is a small, short, weak, thin, a young nebekh". This is directly opposite to mentsh (more commonly spelled as "mensch") which, in short, means a "real" man of upstanding character and a person to emulate. The Joys of Yiddish: [https://books.google.com/books?id=V04IRE3SwmgC&pg=PA353 p. 353]Michael Wex, How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck), 2009